Dealers who sell guns now need to be licensed, and must require a background check from all purchasers. That change started in May.
In the past, dealers could sell at gun shows or online without requiring a background check or a waiting period from their buyers.
Rob Wilcox is the Deputy Director of the White House office of gun violence protection. He explains how rolling out the new rule will limit gun sales.
“Gaps in our background check law have allowed domestic abusers, gun traffickers and school shooters all to acquire guns,” said Wilcox. “As we approach the 25th year mark of Columbine, we can look back to how those school shooters got the guns that they used in mass shooting through the gun show loophole.”
Wilcox went on to say that while 80,000 Americans are licensed to sell guns, about 20,000 gun sellers are unlicensed.
To see how this new law would affect local gun sellers, I went to the Florida Gun Show in Fort Myers on June 8.
Most of the people I approached declined to talk to me. But I did get to talk to Robert Geisler, who is the General Manager of Florida Gun Shows. He told me that they began operating by this rule about 10 years ago.
“We require everyone now that wants to buy tables here, to have a Federal Firearms License,” said Geisler. “So any person behind the table, selling or buying guns at Florida Gun Shows is an authorized federal firearms dealer. And that means that anybody buying a gun from a table from any vendor here at our tables, does a background check no differently than if they're going into a gun store.”
Meanwhile, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has filed a lawsuit against the White House, claiming that the new rule will burden law-abiding citizens with bureaucratic red tape and costs. The rule does not affect the sale of personal gun collections.
Dr. Dave Thomas is a professor of forensic studies at Florida Gulf Coast University and a former law enforcement officer. While he is not sure how big an effect this will have on crime in Florida, he does support the implementation of the law.
“If you think about it, it's not a bad idea. I know the NRA, they have fits about it. And I know that a lot of Second Amendment people have fits about it. But if we're trying to do things right, and we're trying to keep guns off the street, then that would be a way to do it,” said Thomas.
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